What to Do When You Learn Your Child is Deaf

  • Is It Difficult to Learn & Teach Sign Language Online?

    There exists a general perception that learning sign language is hard.   However, contrary to the popular belief, if you have access to the right t...
  • Turn Off the Radio and Listen

    Turn off the Radio and Listen. Really, Truly Listen.

    One more thing, if you do have a deaf/HOH child and you are all listening to music in the car or at home, download an application on your phone that identifies the song being played and the lyrics. Include your child in the experience, you would be amazed how incredible it is to have all of your children with smiles on their faces, singing at the top of their lungs, and dancing like nobody’s business. And if they’re all singing, they can’t hear me ;-)

  • "I am so sorry". Don't be.

    I have heard the “I am sorry” comment multiple times throughout Alexandra’s 24 years and every time I want to express that the differences we see in ALL children is by perfect design. Think about how many young children are out their feeling isolated because they are viewed as “different”. Really? Aren’t we all?
  • To implant or not to implant?

    The Questions: Cochlear Implant? No Cochlear Implant? Positives? Negatives? At the time, making this decision was profoundly nerve-racking for me as her mother and virtual single-parent. Like any mother, I wanted to do the absolute right thing by my baby, my daughter.
  • What's the sign for Toilet Paper???

    We were all going to learn sign language, in our case Signing Exact English (SEE). But there were so few resources available; no story books, no games, no characters, nothing to engage a toddler except a Signing Exact English Dictionary – 431 pages of densely-packed signs in alphabetical order. Overwhelmed, we began planning our approach.
  • Happy Birthday Sunshine!

    It was also around this time that I became aware that Alexandra did not babble or coo like other babies. Watch a baby in their bouncy chair, playpen or swing; they jibber-jabber, burble and make sounds, sometimes even startling themselves. They are mimicking what they hear. Alexandra never did that.
  • I LOVE YOU - Most important sign to know

    The Single Most important Sign to Know? I Love You.
  • Learning to Communicate

    Shocked and overwhelmed. That’s how we felt when our daughter Alexandra was diagnosed with a severe / profound hearing loss. She was less than a year old.

    When life throws out an unexpected obstacle our primal instincts are to fight or flee. I chose to fight and embraced this challenge as another experience of being a mother.

  • Tympanostomy

    Alexandra had been in and out of the pediatrician’s office for 7 months with Otitis Media an infection of the middle ear infection yet she still had not had a hearing test. When I pressed the doctors about Alexandra’s lack of response to verbal cues, it was attributed to the fluid in her ears and her multitude of ear infections. Never once did we consider that she was deaf.
  • Sunshine

    We had a quick and easy delivery, just seven and a half hours. Alexandra popped into this world with a smile and maintains that enthusiasm and zest for life to this day. For the first three weeks, all seemed normal. Then the ear infections started. Our lives, even though we didn’t yet recognize it, were about to change.
  • How do you know when your child is deaf or hearing impaired?

    How do you know when your child is deaf or hearing impaired?

    “How did you find out your daughter couldn’t hear?” That usually the first question people ask when they find out that my daughter, Alexandra, is deaf.

    The answer is, we didn’t know. We didn’t know until she was 11 months old. You can see their eyes widen in alarm and disbelief. You think to yourself – “Are they wondering if I was a very inattentive parent not to know my child couldn’t hear?” In fact it was the opposite, we interacted with Alexandra all the time and she responded to our eyes, movements, touch, smell and presence with great interest. Because of this we didn’t know that she wasn’t responding to our voices.